Q&A with Ichay Bulaong, Head of CRM at ABS-CBN Corporation

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The rise of the connected customer has rewritten the rules for customer relationship management. Ichay Bulaong shows us how to stay on top of the new CRM game.

You’ve spoken about taking a proactive approach to churn control as opposed to a reactive method. What does a proactive churn control strategy look like?

A proactive churn control strategy involves predicting when a customer is likely to churn and intervention to prevent the churn. By stepping in to prevent it early, the customer doesn’t even get to the point at which they want to churn. At the end of the day it’s really important that you meet the basic needs of the customers and look at their core needs. It’s not just a matter of being able to make a call on a mobile. Beyond that, it’s a connection to family, being able to know what the latest prices are, knowing the latest weather – it’s really about meeting relevant everyday needs. If you’re able to meet them then you become indispensible and that’s how relationships are built. Being able to go beyond the product function and understand your customer’s psyche is important.

 “Never take numbers at face value – add heart to your numbers” – this is a piece of advice that seems to fly in the face of conventional marketing wisdom. How do you think adding heart to your numbers can reap rewards for your business?

People laugh or smirk or grin when I say that and I used to too – I’m a data person, a numbers person. But I work with a lot of creative people and we’re always told, use your heart – because, beyond the numbers, there’s a reason behind the numbers. For instance, the number one reason for churn in our cable business is inability to pay. It’s always equated to be financial incapacity. But we found out through conducting some research, that the shows they are watching are not touching their hearts anymore, so they’re not willing to pay. So even if we bring down the price, it will not meet their needs. It’s a matter of fixing content and giving them the content that they need and they want, that’s relevant to them. That’s so important. The other reason people overlook it is that it’s an additional step, its additional work. Your numbers have deeper meaning if you have qualitative research to back it up. Your research doesn’t have to be long and expansive and cumbersome. It can be quick and easy.

Why are test and learn methodologies so important for marketers?

Everything we’re doing, we’re doing for the first time. Everything is new. Everything needs to be tested. I think there’s another reason for that. Even if I wanted to test something on everyone in the database, I don’t think I could convince the company to do it.

The rise of the cross-channel customer has created seismic shifts for customer relationship management. What would you identify as best practice for building relationships with this new customer?

It’s interesting because marketing isn’t changing, but the channels are changing and therefore methods are changing.  But it is important to know what customers need are and build the data around this. It’s interesting how simple demographics such as household size can be really important. Simple information like customer age and what they are watching can help you build valuable marketing data a little at a time. For a cable business for instance, a simple question like “what sport do you play, basketball or baseball?” can help you work out what sort of channels you should be promoting. That opens up a whole world of opportunities for us, I think customers will volunteer data as long as you make it clear that it will help them in the long run and they know it will help you give them a better service.

ABS-CBN Corporation is the Philippines’ major information and entertainment multimedia conglomerate, and operates Sky Cable, the country’s largest cable TV service provider. Globally, ABS-CBN Global operates cable television channels and provides content to millions of customers in the USA, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Middle East.

Article by Neha Kale

Neha is a writer and editor for The Media Pad, publisher of Power Retail. She has a background in business, arts and film journalism and an interest in new media and digital strategy. She is looking forward to exploring how marketers are impacted by the online space for Power Marketer. Neha is a magazine junkie whose other addictions include coffee, travel and live music. She likes to run but has a long-time allergy to team sports.

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